Priebus: Americans Not 'Better Off Today' Than 4 Years Ago

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says the Mitt Romney presidential campaign has an advantage entering the final two months of the election because most Americans really are worse off today than they were four years ago.

“It will be a basic question for the American people,” Priebus told Fox News' Neil Cavuto Monday. “And the nice thing about our position, Neil, is that although the facts are not good for America, the facts are on our side. And I will tell you going into a closing argument, there is nothing better than having the facts on your side.”

Priebus — who is heading up the GOP's “rapid response” effort at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. — said the party’s job this week is to set the record straight on President Barack Obama and to “make sure that the American people know what is at stake.”

“All the distractions will come and go, but this will come down to whether or not people are better off today than they were four years ago,” Priebus said. “And no amount of smoke machines, and laser lights, and balloon drops [at the Democratic convention] are going to take away the fact that we need to get our economy back on track. And no one can do it better right now than Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.”

The GOP chairman said Obama and the Democrats will try to use the convention “to sell the American people that he needs another four years.”

"Another four years of what?" Priebus asked, noting the nation’s economy is “in the deepest part of the ditch right now.”

“He had his chance. He had a chance with a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate [during his first two years] and he didn’t deliver,” Priebus continued. “It is just not good enough. . . . We have to save this country and fire Barack Obama.”